| July 8, 2014
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In This Issue |
Events
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Education/
Training
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Safety
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AGC News
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Member News
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Here's Looking At You
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News You Can Use
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 Quick Links |
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Events |
AGC Houston invites all member general contractors to nominate deserving specialty contractors for the 2014 AGC Houston Safety Excellence Awards and The Ray Lambright Excellence In Safety Award.
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AGC Houston thanks all members who submitted an entry for the APEX 11 Awards! Volunteer members and industry professionals visited each submitted project entry on Friday, June 27. Make plans to see who will take home an award at the APEX 11 Gala, September 13, 2014, at the Westin Memorial City. We'll be publishing details about the event soon. Stay tuned!
AGC of America Safety and Health Committee Meeting
Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront
Portland, Oregon
Join more than 150 industry professionals and participate in the development of regulatory and legislative activity on both a national and local level, assist in the development and creation of new safety training programs and products, and hear the latest initiatives from OSHA and other industry experts.
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AGC Houston Chapter Office
11:30 a.m. and lunch will be served
If you have a 401(k) retirement plan and are interested in learning more about or moving into our plan, you are invited to:
• Talk with CEOs/CFOs of companies in the AGC Southwest Chapters Plan;
• Learn about the types of benefits the size of the AGC plan brings to your company;
• Observe our annual plan cost analysis.
For more information and to reserve your spot, contact R.W. Baird at 713-296-8066.
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The Junior League of Houston
7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Don't miss this year's 2014 Midyear Meeting, featuring keynote speaker First Sergeant Matt Eversmann, hero of the renowned film Black Hawk Down.
In addition, the 2014 AGC Safety Excellence Awards will be presented, honoring all member companies that took part in the Safety Stand Down event June 2-6!
Register today by completing and submitting the registration form to Meaghan Pier.
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Omni Austin Hotel Downtown
Austin, Texas
Registration for the 2014 AGC Building Contractors Conference is open today! Taking place in Austin, Texas, this year's conference focuses on bringing together high-level leaders in the building construction industry to share, learn and discuss the issues that are essential to them and their business. This year's conference features guest speakers such as Ken Simonson, AGC of America Chief Economist, Ryan Abbott, Sundt Construction, and more. Don't miss the chance to network with others in the industry and discuss relevant topics essential to the construction industry!
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Sheraton Downtown Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
AGC's Construction HR and Training Professionals Conference provides two days of education and networking for HR, training, and workforce development professionals in the construction industry. Educational sessions cover the most cutting-edge techniques in training and development currently in use and envisioned for the future in the industry.
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Registration for the CLC Leadership Development Conference, formerly known as Fall Working Weekend, is now open. This year’s event is co-hosted with the San Antonio Chapter of AGC and will take place October 23-25, 2014, at the San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk. Highlights of the program include keynote speaker George "The Iceman" Gervin, former San Antonio Spurs player; Chuck Greco, Linbeck Group, LLC, and Senior Vice President of AGC of America; and a roundtable session that will allow attendees to learn best practices from CLC groups from across the country.
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Education/Training |
Developing young leaders will be a key piece of the future success and growth of the construction industry in Houston. Leadership AGC is seeking those individuals interested in developing and enhancing their skills as leaders as well as increasing their overall knowledge of our industry's place in the community.
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CM-BIM candidates must successfully complete the four AGC BIM Education Program courses, provide AGC with a record of completion and have an approved application in advance of the exam.
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Completion of this course meets the requirements of OSHA Paragraph 1926.50, and participants will receive an American Heart Association Heartsaver First Aid and CPR/AED wallet card valid for two years upon course completion.
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Among numerous topics, this class will cover notice deadlines and requirements for filing lien and bond claims, how to obtain project information, and how to avoid common problems with lien and bond claims.
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This session will build on the Liens and Bonds speech with an advanced
discussion of liens and how they are enforced. The session will also cover a
variety of payment topics.
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Safety |
The OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety Course is intended for supervisors or workers with some safety responsibility. It provides a greater depth and variety of training on an expanded list of topics associated with workplace hazards than the 10-hour course.
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The Globally Harmonized System for Hazard Communication is an international
standard for informing workers about health, physical, and environmental hazards
in the workplace.
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The Globally Harmonized System for Hazard Communication is an international
standard for informing workers about health, physical, and environmental hazards
in the workplace.
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This course covers OSHA General Industry Standards and other consensus and
proprietary standards that relate to the use of hazardous materials.
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This class addresses the practices and procedures necessary to disable machinery
or equipment, therefore preventing the release of hazardous energy while
employees perform servicing or maintenance activities.
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This class addresses the practices and procedures necessary to disable machinery
or equipment, therefore preventing the release of hazardous energy while
employees perform servicing or maintenance activities.
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This course covers OSHA requirements for maintaining and posting records of occupational injuries and illnesses, and reporting specific cases to OSHA.
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This course covers the OSHA Fall Protection Standards for construction and general industry and current fall protection methods.
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This course covers the safety and health hazards associated with permit-required
confined space entry. This course features workshops on permit entry
classification, instrumentation and program development.
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AGC News |
The Spring 2014 BIMForum in Boston focused on the variety of ways that BIM is being used to enhance the speed and creativity of projects. The theme of Optimizing Design with BIM led to a wide variety of presentations that showed how there are very different methods in how BIM is utilized throughout the industry. One of the focal points was a strong effort on sharing information between trades, yielding a quicker, more effective process. Design and constructability conflicts are also able to be resolved more rapidly and more efficiently because all those needed to make these changes were actively involved throughout the lifecycle of the project.
AGC is proud to offer BIM classes designed to address the immediate needs of the construction industry. Interested in learning more? Click here.
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In a time where many industries are threatened by the declining economy, the construction industry has continued to thrive. Construction employers added 6,000 workers to payrolls in June as the industry's unemployment rate dropped to 8.2 percent, its lowest June level in six years, according to an analysis of new government data by the Associated General Contractors of America. Construction employment totaled 6,015,000 in June, the highest total since June 2009 and an increase of 186,000 or 3.2 percent from a year earlier. The unemployment rate for workers actively looking for jobs and last employed in construction declined from 9.8 percent a year earlier to 8.2 percent in June—the lowest June rate since 2008.
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The Associated General Contractors of America has joined the Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Hiring Our Heroes program, launched in 2011, which aims to hire 100,000 veterans in the next five years. "The only thing keeping many of our members from hiring vets is figuring out how to find them," says Stephen Sandherr, AGC's CEO. "This new partnership will make it easier for construction firms to find, recruit and hire veterans."
AGC has joined the initiative at a time when the construction industry is facing a shortage of skilled workers. The Hiring Our Heroes partnership is, in fact, a key part of the AGC’s Workforce Development Plan.
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The Construction State Law Matrix is the most comprehensive, definitive and concise publication available, covering all aspects of state laws that may affect your public or private construction project. This essential resource, for use before completing any construction contract in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, ensures compliance and enforceability under state law.
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Members receive exclusive weekly offers - Must sign up by August 15
Our members are eligible for special weekly offers from Starbucks, iTunes, FTD and more—so spread the word! When you register for the FedEx Advantage discount program, you will be automatically enrolled in FedEx Fridays. You’ll get exclusive offers emailed to you every Friday for this limited-time promotion. And, you’ll continue to receive discounts of up to 29% on select services all year long, ever after the promotion ends. Enroll now or call 1-888-708-4100 by Aug. 15, 2014. Be sure to use passcode AGCFDX.
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Member News |
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Here's Looking At You |
Beginning July 16, downtown Houston's Alley Theatre will be receiving some major renovations. Thanks to W.S. Bellows Construction Corp. and The Kauffman Company, the 75,000-square-foot building is slated to receive new interior and exterior lighting, improvements to the stage, and much more. The $46.5 million project is scheduled to be completed in August 2015.
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News You Can Use |
The Houston region is expected to have 296,000 job openings in the "middle-skills" occupations within the next three years, and a new effort is being launched to fill them. In conjunction with the Greater Houston Partnership and JPMorgan & Co., the UpSkill Houston program will create seven sector-specific councils to improve coordination among the stakeholders. The seven key sectors for the Houston region are advanced manufacturing, construction, health care, oil and gas, petrochemical, ports and maritime, and utilities.
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According to the Texas Comptroller's Office, the Houston area boasts the lowest school construction costs in Texas at just $135 a square foot, nearly $20 lower than the state average. The Houston region also includes three of the most prolific builders in the state—the Katy, Cypress Fairbanks and Fort Bend school districts, which have added a combined 6.7 million square feet of facilities since 2007. Efforts are being made to ensure that Houston's school construction costs continue to remain one of the lowest in the state.
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On June 12, the U.S. Small Business Administration issued an interim final rule that increases a number of construction industry small business size standards to account for inflation since 2008.
The size standard for Commercial and Institutional Building Construction (NAICS Code 236220), as well as many of the Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction size standards (NAICS Subsector 237), will increase from $33.5 million to $36.5 million. The size standard for Specialty Trade Contractors under NAICS Subsector 238 will increase from $14 million to $15 million.
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, AGC of America has reported that Texas' construction injury rate has come down by almost half in the past decade. Texas had a construction injury rate of 4.4 incidents per 100 workers in 2003. By 2012, the construction-injury rate was 2.3 incidents per 100 workers—a decrease of 48 percent. The new statistics regarding construction injury and fatality rates have bolstered new efforts by the AGC to make the industry even safer.
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According to Toby Mack, president of the Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance, the hiring of construction workers could increase 60 percent from the 2012 level by 2025. He predicts that five percent of those opportunities will occur within the energy-producing regions. However, he warns, "government action restricting shale energy production could undermine the viability of this sector."
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Sempra Energy and Cameron LNG's $10 billion liquefied natural gas export facility project in Hackberry, La., has received final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The project is now a step closer to construction, and could break ground later this year, according to Sempra.
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Trimont Real Estate Advisors has seen a 12.9% increase in construction loan administration assignments during the past year and a half. "As development continues to accelerate in urban and suburban clusters, we're seeing ample opportunities for major markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta," said Greg Winchester, a company principal. "We expect this growth to continue trending strongly upward in the coming year."
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